


Sentries

by Callaeidae3, lechaton17



Series: Late Night Spontaneous Fic Writing [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Head Injury, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Post Season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 03:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17418110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lechaton17/pseuds/lechaton17
Summary: Keith runs into a couple of sentries while out on a scouting mission with Shiro. The injuries he sustains have him seeing sentries in the people who try to help him.





	Sentries

**Author's Note:**

> We've been struggling to get our writing going and decided to try write some spontaneous fics together to get the words flowing again! This is the first!

Keith walks alone through the quiet, seemingly abandoned rubble of the city.  He’s cold, but the cold never really bothered him anyway, so he keeps on walking. He needs to find Shiro again since they were split up to explore the city.

“Situational awareness much, Iverson,” he mutters. “We don’t know who could be out here.”

Suddenly he hears a noise up ahead, and he stops, listening hard. It’s hard sometimes to distinguish what sounds are coming from his helmet and which sounds he’s hearing from around him.Whatever the noise is, it’s definitely coming from up ahead. It could be Shiro, or it could be anything.

“Shiro, the Galra workcamps are too close so I can’t pinpoint your location. I, uh… I can hear something nearby but I’m not sure what it is. If it’s you, can you copy?”

Shiro’s voice answers him a moment later. “I can’t hear you from where I am.”

“It doesn’t help that I’m not exactly moving right now. Can you describe where - !“

Without warning, a sentry comes from behind a ruined building, shots firing. Keith barely has time to pull up his shield before yet another sentry emerges, the second one sidling out from the exact spot he’d just been hearing noises from a few seconds ago.

“Shiro!” Keith yells through his comm. “I’m under attack! There’s at least two sentries-”

A shot catches him in the side of the head. He stumbles sideways, grimacing. His helmet is damaged and he cannot get a call for help through to Shiro. This is exactly the kind of thing he was trying to warn Iverson about.

_Where are you, Shiro?_

Keith ducks behind a building, trying to think on his feet. He is at a disadvantage and he knows it. His right ear is still ringing from that shot, the ear itself feeling almost bruised. It’s throwing off his balance and his ability to pinpoint the location of the sentry’s feet coming his way.Before he can think of a plan, one of the sentries is already there in front of him, gun pointed right at Keith’s face.

_Situational awareness, Keith!_

The thought barely comes to him when Shiro is suddenly there, crashing into the sentry before it can shoot. Keith is frozen to the spot, sword arm hanging limply at his side.

He watches helplessly as Shiro takes out the first sentry and the other one catches up. Shiro’s hand stays lit up as he slices through the second one, too. The noise rings in Keith’s ears at a concerning pitch. Shiro stays there, breathing heavily, just waiting for another sentry to come, but none do.

He turns and looks at Keith. “Keith, are you okay?”

But Shiro’s not really paying attention to the look on Keith’s face, instead keeping his focus on listening out for any sound that might come from around them.

Keith blinks, trying to process everything that had just happened. His head still feels off, and he can’t find his voice. For some reason his brain registers that it’s getting darker out, but that doesn’t make sense - night fell several hours ago.

...and why is Shiro looking at his chest armour with so much alarm on his face?

“Keith!” Shiro shouts, moving towards him, but before Keith can even try to respond, the darkness overtakes him.

The last thing he’s aware of is pain shooting through his knees as he collapses before Shiro can catch him.

\-----

The first thing Keith is aware of is a steady beeping. He isn’t sure what the beeping means, but he focuses on it, trying to get his brain to work. There was some sort of fight, right?

The beeping grows faster, interrupting his thoughts, and with a jolt of alarm he realises what the beeping must be.

_A bomb?_

The beeping gets quicker. It just makes him panic more. There is movement around him, and a nervous voice that he recognizes. “Keith. Hey. Keith!”

Shiro can’t hear the bomb, can he? He can’t hear the sentries, either. If Keith doesn’t do anything, the explosion is going to kill them both - if the sentries don’t kill them first. With a distressed cry, he goes to throw himself over the bomb but the sentries won’t let him, holding him down with hands like clamps.

“Keith!” Shiro is yelling again, and Shiro’s panic just scares Keith more.

He needs to help Shiro, he needs to get them away - why can’t he move? He tries to get free but he can’t. The bomb’s about to go off any second. It just keeps getting louder and quicker and quicker and _why can’t Shiro hear it?!_

“Keith please,” Shiro’s voice pleads him. “You’re okay now. Everything is okay. Just listen to my voice.”

He can’t breathe. Shiro can’t hear it. He can’t hear the beeping and Keith can’t get enough air into his lungs to be able to tell him. His panic consumes him. This can’t be the real Shiro. It can’t be. The Shiro he knows wouldn’t tell him everything is okay when there’s sentries holding him down, immobilising him, and ignoring the fact that _there is a bomb about to go off._

“I’m sorry, Shiro,” another voice says. Keith can’t place the voice. How many people are there? Why are they not doing anything? “We are going to have to give him a sedative, this is too much stress on him-”

These people thought he’d be _okay_ with it? Because he’s Galra or something? Had they been testing him, maybe? Was Shiro saving him from the sentries earlier nothing but a hallucination?

But if they’d been testing him, then they must hate him, and if they hate him then the bomb must be to kill _him_ … but then why are they talking about sedative if they’re just going to kill him anyways?

Keith’s mind reels. None of this makes any sense. None of this -

Something enters his bloodstream and he tenses.

“Keith I’m sorry,” Shiro says, and it almost sounds like he’s sobbing. Why would Shiro be sobbing? Who is he with, and why are they doing this to him? Shiro would never hurt him or let anyone hurt him. If Keith could just get up-

The sentries don’t loosen their grip. Whatever they just injected him with is making his limbs feel like they weigh more they do. He wonders if he’s just been hallucinating Shiro’s voice, that it’s not the clone but a different dose of drugs running through his blood and messing with his head.

But when he finally manages to force his eyes open, just before the sedative starts weighing on his mind as well, he sees it really is Shiro. Shiro is upset - and Keith has rarely seen Shiro this way.

Keith doesn’t understand where he is or what is going on, and before he can try to make sense of it, he is pulled under the effects of the drugs and everything fades to black.

...though not before he catches a fuzzy glimpse of green, yellow, blue and pink flash in his peripheral.

The Paladins are all in on this, too.

\---

This time when Keith comes too, he only catches bits and pieces of sounds. Voices, though they don’t make any sense. Movement. And somewhere, beeping. He can’t remember where he is, but the beeping alarms him.

They must’ve reset the timer on the bomb, if only to taunt him. Delaying their killing him so that he suffers more. The sentries aren’t holding him down anymore - they don’t have to. Whatever’s running through his system is strong enough to make him unable to do anything, even think properly.

He drowns in confusion, resurfaces and drowns again.

This is some kind of torture. He can’t even try to fight back. He just wants to move, to run, to understand. He tries to yell, to cry out, and hope that someone-maybe Shiro- will hear him. But all he can manage is some sort of weak groan.

“...oo strong a dose…”

“...more harm than good.”

_No, I-I’m not! I’m not going to do anyone any harm. I’m good!_

“...have to keep him under?”

 _Please, just...please…Shiro, help me…_ “Sh’rrr’!”

He feels something- someone takes hold of his hand. The hand is warm, and in his panicked state, it gives Keith a little reassurance. “Keith?”

It’s Shiro. Keith knows it.

This time when the tide of black comes, he feels no need to resist it. He wants to fight it, to cling to Shiro’s voice and follow it out of this messy mindstate, but there’s bad pain in his chest and in his head that he can feel behind whatever is numbing his senses.

“It’s okay, Keith. Just rest. You’re safe.”

If Shiro says it’s safe then it must be, right?

He trusts the voice that speaks to him and lets himself go.

\---

The beeping hasn’t disappeared, but neither has the hand holding onto his. _Shiro’s still here_ , his mind supplies.

Keith doesn’t know if Shiro’s been here the whole time or if he’s been away and come back again. Either way it doesn’t matter. Shiro’s here; that’s what matters. Keith concentrates on the warmth of Shiro’s hand, willing his fingers to move. He wants to let Shiro know that he’s okay, or at least aware that he is there.

_Wherever here is…._

 

After a few seconds of concentrating, his fingers twitch and he curls them around the hand. Shiro inhales sharply and squeezes his hand back.

“Hey, Keith… you awake?”

Responding is more difficult than it should be. Keith’s eyes feel glued shut, and even just barely moving his fingers took a lot of energy. However, with as much willpower as he could muster, he’s able to open his eyes, blinking as the room slowly comes to focus.

White walls and a ceiling. Light streams in through a window behind Shiro. Keith frowns at the room and the worried, hopeful, _anxious_ expression on Shiro’s face. He can’t work out where he is just by that information, but when he tries to move his head to look around he finds he can’t. It’s too heavy and he’s too exhausted to find the energy to make the effort.

He lets his eyes drift back to Shiro and looks at him, questioning. “Wh’re…?”

Shiro smiles at him, though his smile is sad. “You’re at the Garrison. You...you were injured by the sentries that attacked while we were out scouting the city. Do you...do you remember?”

 _Sentries?_ Some part of him reassures him that the sentries were just a hallucination, that they weren’t real and it was just his mind playing tricks on him. But Shiro’s saying he was attacked, so they can’t not have been real, right?

“The sentries,” Keith murmurs, words slurring. “They were here before.”

Shiro frowns. “Here? No- I took both of the sentries down before I even realized you were injured. Luckily there were only those two, and I was able to get you back here….” His voice trails off. His throat moves as he swallows. Blinking hard at some unwelcome memory, he averts his eyes.

“I was injured?”

“You were shot through the chest at the same time you got blasted in the head, apparently.” Shiro grunts and turns his head back to Keith. “Pretty sure you would’ve remembered getting hit otherwise, eh?”

Keith blinks. Shot in the chest? It did hurt to breathe, after all. Keith just looks at Shiro, unsure of what to say. He can tell Shiro is shaken. Keith wonders how bad things had gotten to make Shiro so afraid. He wants to comfort him somehow, but the words just won’t come to him.

“How bad was it?” Keith asks instead. He’s not entirely sure whether he’s asking about his own injuries or the emotional stress Shiro had to go through while carrying him back to the Garrison...maybe it’s both.

Shiro doesn’t answer at first. He has trouble meeting Keith’s eyes. Finally he speaks, his voice slightly higher than usual. “It was bad there, for a little while. We weren’t sure...what was going to happen.” He looks at Keith and tries to smile, as if to comfort him. “I’m….I’m glad you are awake now.”

There’s something Shiro’s not telling him - something he’s _avoiding_ telling him. When Shiro still refuses to elaborate and Keith slips his hand out of Shiro’s in frustration.

Keith narrows his eyes. “What kind of bad?”

It’s more of a squint he’s making, but Shiro gets the meaning of it.

Shiro sighs. “You were a little...confused. You were fighting the doctors when they were trying to help you. They said it was probably due to the hit on your head, but it was...it was hard to see you like that. I wanted to do something to help, but I….” He clears his throat, looking away again. “They had to put you under.”

Keith doesn’t fully understand what Shiro’s talking about. The last thing he fought were sentries. He doesn’t remember fighting any doctors.

“You don’t remember?” Shiro whispers, seeing the confusion on Keith’s face.

Unable to shake his head, Keith just stares. “Um….no?”

Shiro lets out a shaky breath. “Okay. That’s okay. It’s probably better than you don’t. Your body’s under enough stress healing as it is without you thinking too hard about things. I think a punctured lung and a head injury is enough to deal with for now, yeah?”

Keith wants to understand, but he is too tired, so he just offers Shiro a weak smile. Shiro returns it. Keith can still see the fear and worry in Shiro’s eyes. Shiro’s trying his best to hide it, but Keith knows him too well.

“Thank you,” Keith says, feeling tired again. “For saving me. And for being here.”

Taking a hold of his hand again, Shiro grunts. “Just don’t scare me like that again, okay?”

“‘m sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologise, Keith. Just rest and get better.”

Keith hums and closes his eyes. Shiro’s hand is warm and comforting. He lets sleep take him again, knowing that he is safe as long as Shiro is there.

If any sentries come near him again, Shiro will take care of them.

 

 


End file.
